Maryland Enacts Paid Sick and Safe Leave Law Over Governor’s Veto

On January 12, 2018, the Maryland Senate joined the Maryland House in voting to override Governor Hogan’s veto of House Bill 1, the Maryland Healthy Working Families Act, which requires employers to provide paid sick and safe leave to hundreds of thousands of Maryland workers. The bill was enacted upon the Senate’s override and will become effective on February 11, 2018, unless the General Assembly passes emergency legislation that was introduced on January 23, 2018 to delay implementation of the law by an additional 60 days.

This emergency bill is designed to give both employers and state administrative agencies more time to implement the law’s requirements. It is not yet known whether there are enough votes to delay implementation of the sick and safe leave law, but we will continue to provide updates on the status of this bill in the coming days.

The sick and safe leave law requires employers with 15 or more workers to allow them to earn up to five days per year of paid leave, which employees may use for their own illnesses or to attend to issues related to domestic violence or sexual assault. Employers with fewer than 15 employees would be required to allow workers to earn the same amount of unpaid leave. We will update this post when more information becomes available.

Don Davis is a Practice Group Associate in the firm’s Washington DC office, focusing on dispute resolution and counseling concerning employment and labor issues. He has represented clients in a wide variety of cases with respect to employment contracts, wage and hour disputes, employment discrimination, disability accommodations, wrongful discharge claims, family and medical leave, defamation, and whistleblower rights.

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